NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 1 53 



associated with these cremations is a rather high-grade but plain ware 

 in which bottle-necked forms are common. It is sparingly decorated 

 with fluting or incision. This ceramic type does not occur in the main 

 ruins and is presumably older. 



Elsewhere in the Maya area cist or tomb burials and inhumations 

 in mounds occur. Certain individuals were partially cremated and 

 their ashes deposited in urns or vases. In northern British Honduras, 

 Gann encountered three types of Maya burials, the poorest consisting 

 of 40 to 50 flexed individuals in large flat mounds ; single individuals 

 with better gifts in high mounds ; and third, " priests or caciques " 

 in stone chambers containing painted vases, green stone ornaments, 

 etc., in large high mounds. He found one example of half-burned 

 human fragments in a large pottery urn. Eric Thompson found sug- 

 gestions of what may have been urn burials in association with Pre- 

 Holmul I pottery in the southern Cayo district, and Gann found a 

 skull in what appears to be a Holmul I vessel in northern British 

 Hondviras. Gann also found 40 human skulls disposed in rows under 

 a stone chamber in a mound in northern British Honduras. This 

 suggests the orderly skull burials in Utila but appears to be rather 

 unique in the Maya field. In general, skull burials seem rather rare, 

 but urn burial in one form or another may have been a rather early 

 ingredient of Maya culture. 



On the basis of association with stelae caches, tombs, or other dated 

 structures (and where these are lacking, on purely stylistic grounds), 

 Vaillant has classified the ceramic collection from Copan into three 

 major divisions (Copan I-III). Aside from the complete vessels, the 

 sherd collection in the Peabody Museum was probably selected to 

 obtain the finest pieces ; hence various monochrome types may well 

 be lacking. As the plain types from Copan would presumably show 

 more resemblances to Bay Island ceramics than do the incomparably 

 better polychrome wares, the collections are hardly comparable. More- 

 over, the matter is extremely complex, and to suggest correlations, 

 should any exist, on the basis of descriptions and photographs would 

 be more than hazardous. This stricture applies equally well to the 

 correlation earlier suggested between certain Uloa polychrome and 

 Bay Island polychrome wares, but there the geographic and cultural 

 gap is not so extreme, and the attempt may be more justified. It may 

 be noted that according to Vaillant's tentative scheme the earliest Uloa 

 wares (Polychrome III-IV), which seem to resemble Bay Island 

 Polychrome I, are apparently later than Copan III. 



According to Vaillant, the occurrence of a single incised sherd and 

 the crude sculptures previously referred to suggest that the earliest 



